# Are there still opium dens in Chinatown? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745 "2001-10-21T21:27:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/1 "2001-10-21T21:27:10Z")
Hope this isnt considered a question leading to intent to perform criminal acs because I’m just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/2 "2001-10-21T21:29:27Z")
Uh, which Chinatown? Vancouver’s Chinatown has plenty of “Shooting Galleries” which are sort of an evolution of the concept. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/3 "2001-10-21T21:34:29Z")
Oh well i was thinking of NY’s Chinatown, and im not talking about shooting heroin, but real opium dens, the long pipe, chaise lounge, etc . ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/4 "2001-10-21T21:35:47Z")
I briefly walked through San Francisco’s Chinatown a few times and it isn’t exactly an upper-class neighborhood, but I wouldn’t know if _opium_, per se, is common there. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/5 "2001-10-21T21:58:34Z")
I just recently read an article about a man who was looking for a real opium den. I think it might have been Vanity Fair, unsure. Anyway, not only are there no opium dens in Chinatown anymore, you can’t even find them in China. The author IIRC, ended up in Southeast Asia somewhere. He had to search for a couple of weeks. He finally found one in an upstairs apartment in a small village. I guess what is happening is that opium is more profitable as heroin than in its straight form. Almost all of the pure stuff is being sold to big cartels (read: Russian Mafia) who are turning it into heroin. ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/6 "2001-10-21T23:34:59Z")
most opium/heroin comes from Afganistan so the price may rise sharply if the Taliban are defeated. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/7 "2001-10-22T00:34:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lady Ice \* > \*\*I just recently read an article about a man who was looking for a real opium den. I think it might have been Vanity Fair, unsure. > > Anyway, not only are there no opium dens in Chinatown anymore, you can’t even find them in China. > > The author IIRC, ended up in Southeast Asia somewhere. He had to search for a couple of weeks. He finally found one in an upstairs apartment in a small village. > \*\* It was Vanity Fair from around a year ago. I was going to post about it too. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/8 "2001-10-22T12:52:40Z")
> [@](#): > > most opium/heroin comes from Afganistan so the price may rise sharply if the Taliban are defeated. While it’s currently popular to associate the Taliban with every form of trouble in the world, the truth is that they have always been very active in suppressing opium and heroin production in Afghanistan. Best guess is that a Taliban defeat will result in a noticable decrease in the price of drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/9 "2001-10-22T13:10:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > most opium/heroin comes from Afganistan so the price may rise sharply if the Taliban are defeated. > > While it’s currently popular to associate the Taliban with every form of trouble in the world, the truth is that they have always been very active in suppressing opium and heroin production in Afghanistan. \*\* Do you have a cite for this claim? I just saw something this weekend on MSNBC, FOX or CNN which said that there is currently more opium being cultivated in Taliban controled areas than ever before. A Taliban spokesman said that with the economy in ruins, the people need a cash crop. He also said the Taliban has ‘plans’ to end poppy cultivation at some time in the future. ---
**Author:** ![robo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@robo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/10 "2001-10-22T18:24:14Z")
Here’s an article: [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011017/wl/afghanistan\_drugs\_1.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011017/wl/afghanistan_drugs_1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/11 "2001-10-22T18:34:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robo \* > \*\*Here’s an article: > > [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011017/wl/afghanistan\_drugs\_1.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011017/wl/afghanistan_drugs_1.html) \*\* Based on this article, my claims that more poppies were being cultivated than before is tenuous. It seems that both **Little Nemo** and I were correct to varying degrees. ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/12 "2001-10-22T18:55:36Z")
Deadwood, South Dakota has kept its old opium dens (without the opium of course) as part of the old Wild West tourism trade. All this is part of the Mt. Rushmore and Little Big Horn trip. And don’t miss Hot Springs, South Dakota, home of Evan’s Plunge (the only thing in town really worth doing). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-opium-dens-in-chinatown/88745/13 "2001-10-22T19:39:13Z")
Re: Cultivation of Opium Poppies in Afghanistan. Here’s the [real data](http://www.undcp.org/pakistan/report_2001-10-16_1.pdf) in pdf format for 2001 from the UN. Cultivation appears to have been severely curtailed in 2001 by the Taliban. Unofficial reports are that the Taliban have let up for economic reasons recently.